LM-2 Upgrades for AFM Shovelhead

Old technology meets new as the Shovelhead has the LM-2 kit added to monitor AFR







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VSTAR Maxair Preditor Pro kit installation

2001 VSTAR 1100 Gets an Upgrade, Maxair preditor pro POD kit

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Commodore 64 BBS days.....

Our "Internet" in the 1980's.    Connection done via TCP/IP

Movie Here!!

Nature day! Did a good deed.

This morning, after hearing last nights commotion, i looked in the swimming pool and found
hundreds upon hundreds of frog eggs which is from a species of concern here in Florida.  This was the first time I hit the emergency kill button, that shuts down the pumps and blows the pressure cap off the DE filter. (normally used when a kid gets stuck to the button of a pool) I Then collected every single egg in the pool and put it into a bucket which I PH balanced (HCL).  As luck would have it, I forgot to shock the pool last night and I was running nylon mesh basket covers, so several hundred more were saved. Im contacting the nature organization in Winter Garden to transfer it over to them.

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Perl said NO! to 5.12

Sorry Folks, Looks like MAC will have to upgrade to 5.16 to use FT817COMM.  Theres an easy addition to the instructions, ill add it on

Seems you can reference a hash key till 5.14 and there is no way around it

FT817COMM on OSX Mavericks

This is a simple install, OSX comes with perl and CPAN.  Read the article to find out how to install it.

Since OSX is a member of the Unix family everything runs the same as LINUX and Unix


See article here

Full Multi Radio support in FT817OS 0.9.3

Multi Radio support has been finished.  See This youtube video for more info.

Grab the new version here!!!

FT817OS 0.9.3 starts support for multiple radios

Multi radio support and radio naming has started in FT817OS 0.9.3  This is just the groundwork and though there is no command yet to add a radio, the large amount a code rework has been done.  It now also supports naming radios instead of the default FT817 name.   The configs are now loaded to arrays of hashes instead of hard coded to make it easier to switch between rigs.   Also the config files are now stored in their own directories and an executable link starts the program Heres a screen shot with a dump of the array

FT817COMM 0.9.7 8-bit vs 16-bit Showdown

Here some side by side comparisons of the 8 bit vs 16 bit speeds on FT817OS.

Formatting a memory area and creating a label

Restoring software calibration

FT817COMM 0.9.7 - Now supporting 16 bit read and write

FT817COMM was released early, due to a bug in 0.9.6.  This version is FAST!!!! A list of changed subroutines to 16 bit is shown below as an excerpt from the change log.

Another important note is CWID now supports 7 characters as I've found a way to read and write to memory address 1928!!!  Get the new version via CPAN update or GET IT HERE. This version still uses FT817OS 0.9.2 so no upgrade is needed if you have 0.9.2

FT817COMM 0.9.6 and FT817OS 0.9.2 Released

New features added and code cleanup in this release.  FT817OS now records the radios calibration , Jumpers, Config and memory during install.  New commands added. load memory, save memory, load config, save config.

See more information here

FT817COMM 0.9.6 on CPAN

FT817OS 0.9.2

******** There is a nasty multiplication bug in loadMemory do not use that function or
load memory in FT817OS.   The problem has been fixed and will be in the FT817COMM 0.9.7 which will post to CPAN in a few hours

FT817OS FT817COMM runs on BeagleBoard

Here is is running on a Beagle Board to an FT817.   Tracy and I set up at Cracker Barrel in Clermont and got things rolling.  Installing the per modules went without issue and the program was up and running in no time


Check out the complete article

FT817OS Updated to 0.9.1

Fixed the show command when in memory mode.  Also added the functions memarea and currentmem within the MEMORY sub directory.   The link to FT817OS 0.9.1 is here

FT817OS v.9 Beta release

FT817OS Beta v.9 has been released.  It requires Perl 5.14 or greater and FT817COMM 0.9.5 or greater to function.  If you've got Perl installed and you've added FT817COMM via CPAN or some other means, installation of FT817OS is quite simple. Click the link below for installation instructions



Check out the Users Guide

FT817COMM goes into beta today

I've released 0.9.5 which has posted on CPAN.  This is the first of the Beta Releases for the FT817COMM perl module which impliments most every function of the FT817 Ham radio.

The link to the module on CPAN is http://search.cpan.org/~jrubin/

Information on installing Perl Modules can be found at http://www.cpan.org/modules/INSTALL.html

Testing has now been done on both the older and newer version radios.  With this release I will also be releasing FT817OS which is a command line FT817 Operating System with a Unix Bash flair to it. Only 10330 Lines of code to implement the full functionality of the Radio.

Click here for more information

Feeling good about the fine print

I'd ditched cable TV a few months ago. When I tell this to people, their reaction is to ask which satellite company i'm on. Nobody can seem to comprehend that I do not have pay TV. After explaining this, the next question is "What do you do then?" Well, I generally do lots of stuff, watching TV however, is not one of them.

In fairness, I do watch once in a while. I have installed an antenna on my roof that picks up about 30 digital channels, half of them are HD. Also having Boxee on the Mac Mini allows for on demand programming with little commercial interruption. Also, a Slingcatcher connected to a Slingbox gives us all the German programs and keeps the wife happy.

Ironically, the free to air local channels come in better from the antenna than from the cable provider. Direct TV pays for commercial time on these free to air channels to entice you with their service, in case I was dumb enough to pay for 500 channels ill never watch. (Except for about 3). It comes in so clear in fact, that you can almost read the fine print in the Direct TV commercial. $24.99 a month for 12 months!!! Sounds like a great deal.... Right? The fine print however says it requires a 24 month commitment. Funny, they dont post the price for the second year which doubles.

Smart people drive stick shift

Ever notice that smart people in the U.S. drive stick shift cars. That is not to say that all smart people drive stick shifts or that dumb people drive automatic. It just that people I know who drive stick shift cars are generally intelligent. In Europe, by contrast, Automatics are almost non-existent, used almost predominately by the elderly and handicapped.

Lets compare the two continents

European argument for manual transmission:

• Availability ( All new and used cars on the market are manual)
• Cost (manual transmissions are cheaper to produce, lowering cost of the car)
• Durability (Require less maintenance, cheaper to repair)
• Efficiency (direct connection and lighter compared to the heaver fluid coupled automatic)

American argument for Automatic transmission:

• Availability ( All new and used cars on the market are automatic)
• Easier (Less pedals and no shifting makes it easier to send text messages while driving)

Basically people who want a cheaper more efficient car and dont sent text mesages or check email while driving through the city would opt for a manual transmission.

My first Unhackintosh Macintosh

As an unexpected birthday surprise, I received a Mac mini from my wife. She knew I was considering one after the debate came up between a Mac Mini or a Boxee box, to augment our TV entertainment since I sent Brighthouse a pink slip a few weeks ago. This isnt my first time ever using OSX. However , Apple made it their personal mission to ensure that the Iphone and Itunes would never connect to a linux box, so I put together something to keep me going in the interm.

This however is the first time I actually got under the hood of the MAC, having several different variants of Linux running at home, and now the easiest OS ever connected, to my TV I did notice some interesting things.

Font Setting:

Holy crap! Did anyone realize that there is no way (with the exception to third party apps like tinkertool) to change the font sizes on this system. This was one of my first missions, sine it is in fct connected to a TV. Not possible! I am utterly amazed that no one at Apple found the need for this.

Program Installation:

Weirdest thing I ever saw. Im more accustomed to ./configure make make install. On a Mac it opens a pseudo drive with a picture to drag an icon from one box to another. Very interesting.

Joystick support:

Mac has no joystick calibration software whatsoever. Another oversight on Apples part. In fairness, digital mode usb joysticks just seem to work. Analog...... your screwed.

Iphone support:

Between the logitech and boxee remote for iphone, I dont event need a keyboard or a mouse